MoD too slow and costly over flood aid, say MPs

Wednesday 3 May 2000 20.11 EDT
First published on Wednesday 3 May 2000 20.11 EDT

MPs yesterday rebuked the Ministry of Defence over its response to the Mozambique flood disaster, accusing it of being too slow in providing help and charging too much for aircraft for rescue missions.

The criticism by the international development committee came amid a furious attack on the government by backbench MPs for holding an important defence debate today when most of them will be away from Westminster.

Ten of the 11 members of the Commons defence committee signed a motion deploring the decision to hold the debate on the day of the English local elections.

Iain Duncan-Smith, shadow defence secretary, accused the government of "shamefully running away" from a debate at a time when grave concerns were being expressed about the state of Britain's armed forces".

Responding to the public row between Clare Short, international development secretary, and the MoD over the cost of supplying helicopters, the international development committee accused the MoD of tending to offer a "Rolls - Royce" service with too many support staff "at the expense of flexibility and speedy deployment".

The MoD initially charged £2.3m for the hire of four Puma helicopters, two Hovercraft, air transporters and 170 support staff.

Ms Short decided instead to charter five helicopters locally for £870,000. She subsequently agreed to send four Pumas to Mozambique after the MoD cut the bill to £1m. She told the committee that while there were 100 staff servicing the MoD's Pumas, there were only 10 looking after the locally chartered helicopters.

Geoff Hoon, defence secretary, said: "The MoD is looking at the lessons arising from our assistance to Mozambique to make sure we can do even better in the future."